Research · Folklore

Folklore & placenames

Folklore and mythology are approached here as historical and cultural sources: evidence of how landscapes were remembered, named and interpreted over time. They are not treated as proof of archaeological events, but neither are they dismissed when they may preserve useful patterns of memory, place and tradition.

Folklore / oral tradition

Ailech in the Dindshenchas

Medieval place-lore (dindshenchas) · Medieval; edited 1903–1935

The recorded tradition

The Metrical Dindshenchas contains poems on Ailech that explain its name and attribute its building to figures of legend. They belong to a learned medieval tradition of explaining famous places through stories of origin.

Source: Ed. and trans. Edward Gwynn, The Metrical Dindshenchas, 1903–1935

Earliest record
Medieval manuscripts edited by Edward Gwynn

Modern interpretation

These poems were composed when Ailech was a centre of royal power, and they show the importance medieval writers attached to it. They do not tell us who built the fort on Greenan Mountain or when.

Reliability

Literary composition. Not a record of events. The original text will be transcribed from the edition with page references.

Folklore / oral tradition

Íth and the naming of Magh nÍtha

Medieval pseudo-history · Medieval; edited 1938–1956

The recorded tradition

In the Lebor Gabála Érenn, Íth son of Breogán comes to Ireland and is killed; the plain where this happens is named for him. The tradition is the source of the name Magh nÍtha, the plain of Íth.

Source: Ed. and trans. R. A. S. Macalister, Lebor Gabála Érenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland, 1938–1956

Earliest record
Lebor Gabála Érenn recensions

Modern interpretation

The story is an origin legend for a placename. It shows that the plain was a named and significant territory to medieval writers.

Reliability

Pseudo-historical narrative. Not evidence for a historical person named Íth.

Folklore / oral tradition

Beltany and Bealtaine

Placename interpretation

The recorded tradition

The name Beltany is often said to derive from Bealtaine, the Irish name for May and its festival, and the stone circle is sometimes linked in popular writing with May-time gatherings.

Source: Placenames Database of Ireland

Modern interpretation

Even if the name does derive from Bealtaine, a placename records how a place was named at some point in the historical period. It does not show that the prehistoric circle was built or used for a May festival.

Reliability

Popular etymology pending confirmation from the historical forms recorded by the Placenames Database of Ireland.